2nd LD: Egypt court confirms Morsi's death sentence over jailbreak

An Egyptian court on Tuesday confirmed the death sentence against ousted President Mohamed Morsi over mass jailbreak during the 2011 political turmoil, state-run Nile TV reported.

Another five members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group, including its general guide Mohamed Badie, were handed the same death verdict.

On May 16, Morsi and more than 100 others were sentenced to death for plotting jailbreaks and attacks on police during the political turmoil four years ago in which President Hosni Mubarak was removed. The case is publicly known as the "Wadi al-Natron jailbreak."

The verdicts has been referred to the Grand Mufti, the country's highest Islamic official who gives the religious judgment of all preliminary death sentences, for his opinion.

In Tuesday's ruling, another 102 defendants, including the famous preacher, Youssef Al-Qaradawi, who resides in Qatar, were handed death sentence in absentia.

Also life sentences, which is 25 years in prison according to Egyptian laws, were handed to 21 other defendants. The verdicts can be appealed.

Some 130 other defendants, who are affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood and members of the Palestinian Hamas movement and the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah group, stand trial in the same case.

They are accused of breaking into prisons and kidnapping and killing police officers.

In addition to the death sentence, Morsi was also sentenced in April by the Cairo Criminal Court to 20 years in jail over ordering the arrest and torture of protesters in 2012. Endit